Welcome to Biscuits & Basil food blog. We are Anna & Julie, and we are sisters, foodies, bloggers. This isn’t our first rodeo! We started our first food blog in 2011. Here is our story:
Julie’s dream of having a recipe blog became a reality in July of 2011, when Mormon Mavens in the Kitchen was launched with a total of 14 authors. We were all so excited for this new venture and began posting recipes as quickly as we could, with each Maven posting every other week on a specific day. And from the beginning we posted our Mormon Morsels (spiritual posts with topics chosen by each Maven) on Sundays. Over the years, Mavens have come and gone as their individual lives have dictated. But we have enjoyed having all the Mavens contribute for however long they were able. In March 2016, the blog had hosted a total of 21 blog authors who provided nearly 1,100 recipe and spiritual posts. We appreciated their creativity and enthusiasm!
As the blog grew and became more popular, we realized the need for more functionality and greater customization. With only a few Mavens actively posting, the time was right to make a big change. In mid-2015, we began the process of overhauling and redesigning Mormon Mavens in the Kitchen. We wanted a simpler, cleaner look and the flexibility to explore creative topics outside of the kitchen. After transitioning the site to a new blogging platform, we relaunched the blog as mormon Mavens in April of 2016.
Julie (the blog creator) and Anna (one of the original mavens) were now running the new and improved blog. It was a labor of love for us, not only because of the upgrade itself, but also because of our appreciation for all the previous mavens who had made this blog so popular. Making sure their recipes were always available, even though they were no longer blogging with us, was a priority.
Enter Biscuits & Basil. In 2018, our Church leaders re-emphasized the correct name of our church and the importance of members referencing the proper name, because the “Mormon” nickname was confusing to others and did not truly reflect who we were. The name of our church is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. With this new emphasis on using the full name of the church, many of the references to the “Mormon” nickname have been changed, as have abbreviations. For instance, the church website was known as LDS.org. (which stood for Latter Day Saints), but is now ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
Because our blog was Mormon Mavens, we felt impressed to change the name and at the same time thought that a brand new blog would be our next step. So we brainstormed and landed on Biscuits & Basil–biscuits because we are Southern girls and basil because it’s Julie’s favorite thing to cook with. Plus, don’t you think Biscuits & Basil just kind of rolls nicely off the tongue?
To see how far we’ve come, check out our first blog on blogspot , then our first dotcom . We hope you will enjoy perusing and using the recipes that we share with you on Biscuits & Basil. And if you are a fan of our former blog, you can still access all of your favorite recipes at Mormon Mavens. We use it all the time as a virtual cookbook.
Who We Are…
Anna and her husband have 2 amazing daughters who are married and have brought them 5 awesome grandchildren! Oh, and 2 pretty cool sons-in-law. They are retired, are empty-nesters, and they love calling North Carolina home. Continuing her volunteer work, she serves on the Executive Team of Power of Moms–a website that promotes and supports deliberate mothers. Her main responsibility is posting articles from the authors to the site. She also volunteers in her community with the local Smart Start Partnership for Children, which helps strengthen families, as well as provide resources for families to help their kids, ages Birth to 5, be prepared for Kindergarten.
As a 1980 graduate from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in Home and Family Development, Anna has found numerous ways to apply her degree in her family, community, and in her work with this food blog, which is a great way to use her creativity, hone her computer and photography skills, and get to cook great tasting food.
As a lifetime member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Anna continues to strengthen her testimony of the Book of Mormon, her Savior Jesus Christ, and the doctrines and organizations that enable all of us to have peace and joy in this crazy, mixed up world. A few of Anna’s favorite things are: organizing/de-junking, working out at her local YMCA, family time, the beach, and blogging with Julie.
Julie created the original blog back in 2011 and now blogs here with her sister, Anna. She’s the youngest of four girls and is a proud member of the G.R.I.T.S. club (Girls Raised In The South)!
Julie and her husband have been married since 1991 and have five children (six if you count her son-in-law) whom they have home-schooled since, well, forever. A native Southerner, Julie convinced her Southern California husband to settle down in her hometown in North Carolina. They enjoy campfires, movies, board games, family trips,…..and eating….DUH!
Also a graduate of Brigham Young University (class of ’92), Julie enjoys a wide range of activities (hello, A.D.D.) and especially loves creative projects like rubber stamping, sewing, model railroading, miniatures, cake decorating, cookie decorating, and gardening. She also loves to read, listen to podcasts, watch movies, exercise, binge-scroll Instagram, and work on the computer. And of course, cook.
Family, church, and creative pursuits keep her busy productive, but that’s just how she likes it!
